How do we feel about Dubai’s second boom?

When I drive my children to school I pass the heads of two dinosaurs roaring over a roadside hoarding; a replica of the space shuttle; and a rollercoaster, oversized stunt motorcyclist, skier and Formula One racing car balanced 100 feet in the air. To me, they’re all dusty reminders of the madness of boom-time Dubai; reminders of long-forgotten projects shelved in the crash; reminders of how crazy Dubai was before the debt crisis hit.

But it seems the dinosaurs may yet live to roar. After three years spent quietly licking its wounds and regrouping, Dubai’s starting to show us signs that the boom times are back. I’ve noticed it at grass roots level – in the traffic jams that once again plague rush-hour motorists; in how difficult it is to get a taxi or a parking space outside the malls at certain times of the day; and in the way in which house prices in popular developments are rising on an almost daily basis, with many villas now back to prices last seen in early 2008.

And, even for those with their heads still buried firmly under the desert sand, the announcements that came out of last week’s Cityscape Global real estate exhibition were an eye-opener: Mega projects shelved during the financial crisis are being restarted faster than you can say underwater hotel. They include Meydan’smulti-billion-dollar residential project, Sobha City; Dubai Property Group’s flagship villa project, Mudon; the Dubai Safari Park project; a dhow wharfage development in Deira; and the incredible AED 5 billion Business Bay Canalproject.

A couple of weeks ago, in scenes reminiscent of 2008, people even queued for two days to buy off-plan properties in Emaar’s latest residential development, The Address The BLVD, at prices double the going rate for the area. The project, which won’t be completed until 2015, sold out on the first day.

“Didn’t you learn anything?” I wanted to shout at those queuing. But they did learn: The 2012 buyer has learned to be more discerning – to buy from developers with a good track record, and to buy into established lifestyle communities. Developments that meet these criteria will be tomorrow’s successes because the property market in Dubai is no longer about slapping up the housing and hoping it sells – if it’s going to survive, it’s got to be about quality, reliability and accountability. Too many people were burned before – they won’t fall for it again (we hope).

Yet, along with the mega projects we’re also seeing a renaissance of the more fanciful projects for which Dubai was once known. Falcon City of Wonders, which was first announced seven years ago and had since been delayed, is finally set to become home to the Taj Arabia– a copy of India’s majestic Taj Mahal that’s up to four times larger than the original. Close by will be a replica of theEgyptian pyramids, containing offices and a museum, as well as copies of the Eiffel Tower, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Great Wall of China, and the canals of New York City and Venice.

As one who watched the rise and fall of a city I love, how does it make me feel? Nervous, excited, curious, wary. And, if Falcon City of Wonders does finally come to fruition, it’ll be mighty peculiar to be able to show the children the pyramids of Giza on the way to school. But then, I guess, that’s Dubai for you.

Annabel Kantaria is a journalist who moved to Dubai long before most people knew where it was. She doesn’t ride a camel to work; has never seen a gold-plated golf buggy and only rarely has pink champagne for breakfast. Follow her on Twitter: @BellaKay